Enjoy Your Summer without a Car: Resources for Walking and Biking in U.S. Cities

Everyone’s getting their move on this summer. Want to get in on the fun? Here are some great resources to help you get around without having to get into a car.

When using programs like a bike share or other low-impact modes of transportation, it’s always best to be prepared before hitting the road. A little bit of preparation usually leads to arriving at places faster and with less stress than when heading out without a plan of action.

An obvious way to decrease frustration and commute times is to live in a convenient walking and/or biking area. Over the past few years, I’ve become a fan of the website WalkScore.com. Used in coordination with property listings, you can learn how easy it is to walk to amenities, like grocery stores, from a specific address. The same group has recently launched BikeScore.com, which provides insights into how accessible neighborhoods in 10 major metropolitan regions are by bike. The Alliance for Biking and Walking also has valuable city information in their Bicycling and Walking in the United States 2012 Benchmarking Report that’s useful when looking for a walking and biking utopia.

Interested in planning an outing without your car? Check out these resources:

I’m a smart phone user and I’ve come to greatly rely on three applications when making quick trips around the city. Google Maps has walking directions that are usually good for walking and road biking. I also use two applications by the company Runtastic: Road Bike Cycling Performance and Walktastic, both of which have free versions. Road Bike Cycling Performance also has a $6 professional application with additional features. Applications on smart phones are incredibly useful since they’re typically with you wherever you go.

A little bit of preparation usually leads to arriving at places faster and with less stress than when heading out without a plan of action.

Many city government websites—often their departments of transportation—make available well-marked local maps that include bike routes, bike lanes, and trails. A simple Google search of your city name and the phrase “bike lane maps” can help you locate these maps if it’s not immediately obvious on the city’s website on how to find them. Cities like Los Angeles, California even have walking and biking maps integrated with Google Maps for your convenience.

Another resource that can often be helpful when planning your walking and biking adventures is Open Street Map. Since the maps are created by bikers and walkers around the country, not all areas have been well mapped—yet. In my neck of the woods, though, all of the paved trails for walking and biking are marked on the map and so are bike lanes. (It’s also free, which I appreciate!)

Speaking of free, the U.S. Geological Survey has exhaustive lists of walking and biking resources and maps for urban and rural areas. As someone who loves maps, if I’m not careful, I can get lost for hours on their site. They have lists especially for biking and walking, and you can even tailor maps to your specific needs using their recreation viewer system.

If you want to get out of the city for a while and head to the hills, so to speak, I recommend checking out TrailLink.com, which has maps and listings of all the Rails-to-Trails projects in the U.S., Outside Magazine’sAdventure Adviser, which offers a section full of suggestions for walking and biking travel destinations, and American Trails, which provides a long listing of all recreational trails in the U.S.

So with all of these fabulous resources, get out and about this summer!